Architecture - 2012 entry

Course content

The Advanced Architectural Design Module (80 credits) represents the core of the learning experience.

Project–based learning is used in a studio environment to individually and collectively explore architectural design problems. The design studio tutors will set the specific design problem and methodology employed. It is envisaged that several parallel studios may be established, numbers permitting, each led by separate studio tutors with different agendas, programmes and methodologies. However, the learning outcomes will be shared in common. Initially, there will be only one studio, The David Greene and Andrew Holmes Studio, which will be organised as follows:

The first semester is always a rigid organised fabric of reviews, workshops, tutorials and deadlines with students working both individually and in groups. Within this framework students engage in two strands of investigation:

• an in-depth research into the tectonic possibilities of a new material/s
• the analysis of a real site with the aim of generating a series of questions that demand an architectural response.

By the end of the semester each student is expected to present to a jury of invited critics a catalogue both conceptual and material, from which they will make a project, in a coherent manner using appropriate media. This jury provides formative feedback for students on their learning.

The first semester design studio is complimented by a series of challenging, group and individual based workshops, Urban Cultures, on drawing, model making and movie making, run by the tutors. Students are expected to engage in questioning and debate with the lecturers and are required to produce a series of responses in drawn and written forms, which contribute to their design portfolio, around a theme related to the lecture series.

Spread over the second semester there is a further series of lectures on Architecture and the City given by external academics and practitioners. Students are expected to engage in questioning and debate with the lecturers and are required to produce a series of responses in drawn and written forms to exercises set by the visiting lecturer. The results are to be bound into a book, which contributes to and supports their design portfolio, around a theme related to the lecture series.

The second semester design studio focuses on the architectural implications of bringing the two apparently dissimilar strands of the first semester’s investigation into surprising conjunctions. Students are asked to approach the possibilities created by these apparently disconnected procedures in an entirely logical way.

At this stage the studio places emphasis on the importance of developing students’ ability to demonstrate conceptual clarity, to locate their ideas in the spectrum of current and past architecture and to maintain a strong link between concept and product.

Students are also encouraged to explore a wide range of media and technique and to develop a rationale for selecting appropriate techniques for the representation of particular kinds of architectural ideas. Students are required to present their design projects to an invited group of invited critics close to the end of the semester. This proves formative feedback for students.

The final module mark is generated from a portfolio-based assessment held at the end of the second semester involving a panel internal staff. This system will ensure parity of marking when the module consists of multiple design studios.

Students also undertake a Research Methods in the second semester that prepares them for their dissertation project. A set of generic postgraduate school-wide lectures on research paradigms, methodology and research tools is followed by master's specific seminars in which students develop a synopsis for their dissertation’. The module is assessed by means of a review of a relevant past master's dissertation and a synopsis proposal.

The MArch programme concludes with the Dissertation Project in which individual students work with a supervisor on projects that have developed from the work of the design studio or appropriate Special Route. Students are expected to produce original, relevant and valid projects. The dissertation can take a written or design based form. In the latter case a written commentary is expected as part of the dissertation submission. Students submit their dissertation projects at the end of the summer vacation and are expected to hold an exhibition of their work in the school or elsewhere as agreed.

As our courses are reviewed regularly, course content and module choices may change from the details given here.

Faculty

Faculty of Technology, Design and Environment

Department

School of Architecture

Course length

Full-time: MArch: 12 months; PGDip: 6 months

Teaching location

Headington Campus, Gipsy Lane

Start date

September 2012

UKPASS code

P008078

Entry requirements

The course is intended for students who have completed their professional role-orientated education and wish to undertake speculative design-based research. Thus it is expected that applicants from the field of architecture will already possess an accredited graduate diploma or postgraduate degree in architecture (UK), a professional master's in architecture (US), or the international equivalent.

Admission to the course will normally be open to applicants who fulfil one of the following requirements:

• hold a good approved undergraduate honours degree in architecture or in a discipline relevant to architecture
• have an appropriate professional background and experience of designing architecture or designing in a discipline that has a strong relationship or similarities to architecture
• are students in their final year of the MArchD in Architecture at Oxford Brookes University, who have demonstrated their proficiency in written and design work.

The course also welcomes applicants from other design fields such as product design, graphic design and interior design, and would expect such applicants to possess an excellent first degree.

Students will be offered places on the course only after a successful interview with the programme staff and/or the submission of a satisfactory design portfolio.

Scholarships and funding

For general sources of financial support, see:

• funding for students from the UK and EU
• funding for students from outside the EU

Why Oxford is a great place to study Architecture

As a student in Oxford you'll be at the heart of the UK's most successful economic region and in a centre for leading industries which provides you with a host of learning opportunities.

Because Oxford is one of the world's great academic cities, it is a key centre of debate, with conferences, seminars and forums taking place across education, science, the arts and many other subjects.

In addition to our own excellent libraries and resource centres, our postgraduate students have access to the world-renowned Bodleian Library, the Bodleian Law Library and the Radcliffe Science Library.

How Brookes supports postgraduate students

Supporting your learning

From academic advisers and support co-ordinators to specialist subject librarians and other learning support staff, we want to ensure that you get the best out of your studies.

Personal support services

We want your time at Brookes to be as enjoyable and successful as possible. That's why we provide all the facilities you need to be relaxed, happy and healthy throughout your studies.

Research excellence

The results of the UK-wide Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) in 2008 show that Brookes' School of Architecture is a major player in international research in the fields of Architecture and the Built Environment. They also show that the school, which includes the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD) as its primary research vehicle, is ranked fifth in the country in terms of Research Power.